Cutting stick



June 8, 1954 H. D. STUCK 2,680,484 CUTTING STICK Filed March 9, 1950 m m \V S 10 13 G 11 v 12 S 14 :ii: "ii: 1O 13 1 29.2. 9 W/ I/ 15 v 11 5 F 4 I S 2 8 M 2 11 4 1 60 a Harold D. Stuck, INKENTOR.

Y f M 43 12 42 42 /54 Patented June 8, 1954 CUTTING STICK Harold D.

Stuck, Anclover, Mass.,

assignor to John W. Bolton & Sons, Inc., Lawrence, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 9, 1950, Serial No. 148,678

12 Claims. 1

This invention relates to what are now known as cutting sticks which are employed on the tables of machines for cutting stacks of paper sheets and also for cutting other sheet material.

There is a cutting knife which may descend at a right angle with shear to the table onto the cutting stick or may descend at an angle with the table, its descent being limited by a cutting stick positioned in a groove in the table.

Such sticks were formerly made of wood, but more recently have been made of other materials.

Preferably such a stick is made of a material which has no grain whereby it may be weakened and splinter and dull the knife, and no fibres which may weaken the stick and dull the knife. It is desirable that there should be a certain resiliency in the stick to take up inequalities in the sheet material and to permit the cutting edge of the knife to pass entirely through the last or bottom sheet of material being cut.

I have found that a stick of a suitable material and shape willoutlast wood, but can use certain kinds of wood treated in certain ways and of the shape shown herein.

It is also desirable that the stick should be so made that it can be used to present a plurality of surfaces to the knife edge and I have found that a square stick can present two lines of engagement with the knife on each face, whereby, without readjusting the knife, the stick can be taken out, turned laterally to present four faces or four different lines and then turned end for end to present four more lines, thereby making eight cutting lines altogether.

Various attempts have been made to accomplish the desired purpose of long life and simplicity such as Blackhall, No. 707,294, who shows a stick which can be adjusted by means of filling strips or set screws; Green, No. 2,281,877, who uses a set screw or spring construction and a composition member of a tough non-metallic material such as Micarta or other phenolic material which can be located in various positions in a holder with a rabbet; or Miller, No. 2,405,593, who uses what he calls a floating shear block of cylindrical or tubular shape which rests upon a pressure inflated pneumatic container, the tubular member being capable of floating or turning so as to present a multiplicity of lines for i the cutting edge of the knife. This tubular member however is made of soft metal or tough and durable plastic but is not resilient, the resiliency being contributed by the inflated member underneath.

I have found that for use in cutting machine with a knife and a table, I can provide a square groove under the knife and can use a cutting stick of a material such as cellulose acetate butyrate or other resilient plastic having no grain and no fibres, with a cylindrical hole which allows a certain amount of increased predetermined resiliency in such a material. If more or less yielding or resiliency is required, another stick with a larger or smaller hole but of the same equal sided or square lateral cross section can be substituted with no adjusting screws or filler strips.

The principal advantage of this device is the i use of a stick made of a material which has some resiliency with a square lateral cross section and having a cylindrical hole extending longitudinally or axially through it. This hole allows the amount of resiliency to be predetermined either by shifting the position or angle of the knife, by any suitable and conventional means, not shown, so that it will engage a line of greater or less thickness between a flat outer face and a curved inner face or by substituting another stick of the same size in square cross section but with a hole of a larger or smaller diameter.

Another novel feature is that it is much easier to make a plurality of relatively short sticks than one long stick with a uniform, homogeneous structure, particularly of their outer faces and at the lines which will come in contact with the knife. Such shorter lengths can be standardized so that a built up stick may be 144 inches in length and can be made up of sections, each from 12 inches to 30 inches in length, each of carefully selected uniform material.

While I prefer to use a uniform resilient plastie for each such short stick section, I can also build up a stick of sections each of carefully selected, straight, close grained wood, thereby avoiding the problem of strong and weak or tough and tender spots such as usually appear in any long piece of Wood.

I can also use a stick built up laterally of a plurality of sections each with a face which will be part of an outside face of the complete stick, an inside face on a curve which will become part of one of the curves of a cylinder and with two diverging faces which may be formed flat or preferably one with a longitudinal bead or beads the other with a longitudinal groove or grooves which engage the head or beads on an adjoining section, all these sections being fastened together as by glue or cementing.

four

The surfaces of the four outside faces which are to be engaged by the knife may be treated with a suitable wax or other material and the ends of each short stick can be a flat plane perpendicular to the faces to engage a similar end on an adjoining short stick or the adjoining ends may be finger jointed or each stick may be formed with a hole at one end and a pin at the other, or the ends-may be beveled or otherwise treated so that the plurality of short sections will present to a knife a top face, all of such face being in a perfect plane with no projections at the ends of the short sticks.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a vertical-longitudinal section ofpart of a paper cutting machine, including a table and knife, showing my invention.

Fig. 2 is an isometric view of a one piece cutting stick before it is used.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to part of Fig. l, of a :cutting stick seated in its groove, after the knife has made one cut into it.

In Figs. 3, 4, and such a cut is greatly exaggerated, as actually it is not more than perhaps one-thirty-second inch in depth. That is too small to be shown in the drawings.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view similar to Figs. 1 and 3 of the same cutting stick, after it has been turned over ninety degrees.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. i of the same stick, after it has been turned over to engage faces with the knife and then turned from end to end. This shows outs l, 2, 3, and 4 made before turning end to end, and 5, as the first cut thereafter, 6, l, and 5 indicate the lines at which three more cuts can be made.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view similar to of a compound stick made up of four sections, each vith an outer face which is flat and converging sides each of which slopes five degrees from the outer face.

Fig. '7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 of a stick made up in four sections, each formed with two outer faces at right angles to each other and two inner sides each at a right angle to an outer face.

Fig. 81s a view similar to Fig. 2 of a stick made up of a number of short sections each with flat ends.

Fig. 9 is a view of the abutting ends of short sections each formed with fingers like interlocking projections.

Fig. 1.0 is a view similar to 9, of the adjoining ends of short sections, one having an integral pin fitting into a pin hole in the end of an adjoining section.

In the drawings, T represents the table of a well known type of paper cutter or cutting machine for cutting stacks of thin sheet material suchas paper, while G is a square groove, running parallel with and under the machine knife K, while S represents a cutting stick of my preferred type which fits closely in groove G with its top face H level with the top face 9 of table T. This stick has the four faces ii, 52, i3, and it, each being in a flat plane, all of the same width and through the centre longitudinally from end to end is a cylindrical hole it. This leaves a certain amount of stock between the curved face of hole ill and each of the other faces.

Referring to Fig. 3, I represents one line of contact between the cutting edge of knife K and the stick S. this being in face ii. Now, if the stick is turned to face i2, Fig. 4, the knife K will now engage 2 of face if and if again turned, will engage 3 of face 13 and again, A of face H. To

at an angle of forty- 1 out the last sheet, edge 15 must actually engage a face of the stick.

It will be noted that the amount of stock between each of these lines and the centre hole 40 is substantially the same, but the thickness of the stock and therefore its resilency can be changed by shifting the knife forward or back, by any suitable and conventional means, not shown, or by replacing the stick S with another stick of the same cross section, but with a smaller or larger hole Iii.

In Fig. 4, l and 2 are shown as cuts or longitudinal scores as made by edge It of knife K.

In View of the square exterior cross section and circular interior cross section of stick S, the interior wall of the stick s is relatively thin intermediate of each face such as H, l2, l3 and Hi and is relatively thick along the corners at which the faces meet. As indicated in Fig. l, knife K is not only vertically reciprocable but may be shifted transversely relative to the stick S whereby the knife edge it may be applied along the thicker portions of the stick rather than above the axial bore ii By laterally shifting knife K relative to stick S, different degrees of resiliency may be obtained from the hollow construction of stick S.

Now, if the stick is turned end to end, the arrangement will be as shown in Fig. 5, so that a single stick as a unit, or one made up of a number of short sticks, such as C, C, Fig. 3, can present eight different lines of contact with the knife edge.

In Fig. 5, l, 2, 3, d and 5 are shown as cuts or scores and E, l, and 8 indicate lines which can also be engaged by edge It of knife K.

Instead of a stick being made of a suitable plastic, or even of selected wood, I can form a stick A with four segments such as 3 I ,32, 33, 34, Fig. 6, each with a flat outer face such as 36 and a concave inner face such as 38 with diverging sides such as 3% and 58, the sides being fastened-together as by glue 3? so that the inner concave faces such as 38 will form the curved surface of a cylindrical hole. As shown, each face such as 39 has a slot 35 and face 18 has a head 41, both running lengthwise.

In Fig. 7, is shown a stick B made up of four sections El, 22, 23, 2d, of a somewhat different shape, these also being shown as fastened together as by glue 25.

Instead of one long stick, with a hole through it, I can use a plurality of short sections such as C, each with a hole such as 43 through it and, as shown in Fig. 8, with a squared end 42 so that an end of each stick C abuts against the end of an adjoining stick.

As shown in Fig. 9, I can use :a plurality of short sticks such as D, D, each with ends shown as formed with two prongs 5t, 53, which engage the spaces El, 51 between other fingers 52, 52, at the end of another adjoining stick.

As shown in Fig. 10, I can use short sticks such as F, F, each with a hole 63, an annular recess 62 at one end and a neck ill at the other end, the neck fitting the recess 62.

I claim:

1. The combination with the table of a machine for cutting stacks of sheet paper and similar sheet material, said table being provided with a cutting stick groove of square cross section, and a vertically reciprocable knife arranged over said groove; of a cutting stick of square cross section seated in the groove, said stick being made of a plurality of sections placed end to end, each section being formed with a cylindrical hole extend-v ing from end to end whereby the cutting stick structure can be scored by the knife and means for shifting the knife transversely relative to the stick and its hole.

2. For use with the table of a machine for cut ting stacks of sheet paper and similar sheet material, said table being provided with a cutting stick groove of square cross section, and a vertically reciprocable knife arranged over said groove; a cutting stick of square cross section to be seated in the groove, said stick being made of a plurality of segments 'With diverging sides and with a flat outer face and a concave inner face, the diverging sides being fastened together and the concave faces forming the curved surface of a cylindrical hole extending from end to end and means for shifting the knife transversely relative to the stick and its hole.

3. The combination with the table of a machine for cutting stacks of sheet paper and simi- 5 lar sheet material, said table being provided with a cutting stick groove of square cross section, and a vertically reciprocable knife arranged over said groove; of a cutting stick of square cross section I seated in the groove, said stick being made of a plurality of sections placed end to end, each section being made of a plurality of segments with diverging sides and with a flat outer face and a concave inner face, the diverging sides being fastened together and the concave faces forming the curved surface of a cylindrical hole extending from end to end and means for shifting the knife transversely relative to the stick and its hole.

4. The combination with the table of a machine for cutting stacks of sheet paper and similar sheet material, said table being provided with a cutting stick groove of square cross section, and a vertically reciprocable knife arranged over said groove; of a cutting stick of square cross section seated in the groove, said stick being made of resilient material and being formed with a cylindrical hole extending from end to end and means for shifting the knife transversely relative to the stick and its hole.

5. For use with the table of a machine for cutting stacks of sheet paper and similar sheet material, said table being provided with a cutting stick groove of square cross section and a vertically reciprocable knife arranged over said groove; a cutting stick of square cross section to be seated in the groove, said stick being made of a plurality of sections placed end to end, each ection being formed with a cylindrical hole extending from end to end, the ends of adjoining sections being 'mterlocked with reference to a flat plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the hole and means for shifting the knife transversely relative to the stick and its hole.

6. A structure such as described in claim 5 with each section being made of a piece of straight, close grained wood.

7. A structure such as described in claim 5 with 6 each section being made of a plurality of segments each made of straight, close grained wood with diverging sides glued together.

8. A structure such as described in claim 5 with each section being made of a plurality of segments each made of straight, close grained Wood with diverging sides glued together and adjoining sides being formed one with a lengthwise slot and the other with a bead which fits the slot.

9. For use in a machine of the character described, a cutting stick of square cross section to be seated in a groove, said section being formed of a resilient material with a cylindrical hole extending through it from end to end with its axis coinciding with the axis of the stick.

10. As a new article of manufacture a cutting stick having at least four fiat exterior surfaces, three of said surfaces being adapted to fit closely within, and be immovably supported in, an open groove of corresponding shape in a cutting machine, said stick comprising the combination of a body member of square exterior cross section formed of inherently resilient material, and an axial bore of circular cross section extending longitudinally from end to end of said body member for forming a relatively thick wall along each corner, and a relatively thin wall between each pair of corners, of the unbored portion of said body member.

11. An article as specified in claim 10 wherein said body member is formed of a plurality of substantially identical shorter sections, each of uniform consistency of said material said sections being aligned end to end and permanently joined around the unbored portion of their abutting end faces.

12. An article as specified in claim 10 wherein said body member is formed of a plurality of substantially identical sections, each section extending the full length thereof longitudinally but only partially around said member laterally and each section being joined to the adjacent sections along its longitudinal edges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 707,294 Blackhall Aug. 19, 1902 1,485,886 Russell Mar. 4, 1924 1,533,124 Lindsay Apr. 14, 1925 2,405,598 Miller Aug. 13, 1946 OTHER REFERENCES 

